Florida teams keep on dancing
Gators and Seminoles hold on for NCAA tourney first-round wins.
HARTFORD, Conn. — Florida State’s Mfiondou Kabengele broke free for a dunk with 9 minutes, 1 second left in the game, pushing the Seminoles up by five against the Vermont Catamounts.
The bench was electrified during the ensuing timeout and it appeared the Seminoles had finally had enough. From there, FSU got another dunk from Kabengele despite being triple-teamed, and a number of nifty finishes by Terance Mann at last gave the Seminoles a double-digit lead.
It wasn’t easy, but No. 4 seed Florida State held on for a 76-69 win over No. 13 seed Vermont during the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.
Kabengele led the Seminoles (28-7) with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Mann finished with 19 points and eight boards. The Seminoles competed without veteran playmaker Phil Cofer, who sat on the sideline with a boot on his right foot.
FSU players said they found out right before the tipoff that Cofer wasn’t playing. Though they’ve dealt with his absence for stretches during the regular season, Mann said it was a factor in the Seminoles being out of sync to start the game.
“Ah, man, that kind of crushed us,” Mann said. “I think that could be attributed to the slow start that we had, just because we’re so used to having a guy out there that we don’t have to worry about on the defensive end.
“So [RaiQuon Gray] did a great job of coming in there and guarding an older dude, a very physical dude.”
The Catamounts (27-7) hung around until the end thanks in large part to an out-of-this-world shooting performance. Vermont sank exactly half of its 32 3-point attempts.
“We knew they were a goodshooting team, but gosh it’s very hard to win a basketball game when a team hits 16 3s,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said.
“To their credit, they played to their strengths. We defended their twos pretty good and they made some 3s that were really, really long-range shots.”
Late in the game, however, the Florida State defense showed up as it has all season long. The Seminoles held the reigning America East Player of the Year Anthony Lamb to just 16 points on 4-of-13 shooting, which included a 3-of-10 performance from 3-point range.
Entering the game, Vermont coach John Becker said the plan was to force the Seminoles to beat the Catamounts from the perimeter. They succeeded during the first half, limiting FSU’s transi-
tion baskets and forcing the ’Noles to take contested jumpers.
Florida State shot 9 of 29 from the field in the first half and 2 of 8 from 3-point range.
The game was tied 27-27 at the break and Hamilton said the Catamounts did a good job at forcing his team out of its comfort zone.
“Our game plan early was to attack, get to the paint and get the ball inside,” he said. “But their defense was containing and they backed off us enough, and we weren’t shooting that well from the perimeter.
“They made it really difficult for us. [But in the] second half, we did a better job of executing.”
Kabengele and Mann combined to score 31 points after halftime. Mann, who had scored just two points in the first half, totaled 17.
Guard Trent Forrest said Mann looked like as if he wasn’t going to be stopped, so the Seminoles let him dictate their offense.
“We just kind of get out of his way and let him do what he does,” Forrest said. “It’s hard to stop Terance when he’s big body like that, especially when he has a matchup he knows he can attack. So I was fine with just getting out of the way and letting him do what he does best.”
Hamilton said there is no sigh of relief after getting the first game out of the way. On Saturday, FSU will face Murray State, an 83-64 winner over Marquette on Thursday.
“Ah, man, that kind of crushed us. I think that could be attributed to the slow start that we had.”
— FSU’s Terance Mann on veteran playmaker Phil Cofer, who missed the Seminoles’ NCAA Tournament opener because of an injured right foot